


(Un)Forgiveness is the Key to Salvation

by FireflySong



Series: Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [1]
Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Heavy Angst, No Dialogue, Sole Survivor Emily, Trauma, em has been through some shit and has no regrets about the things she did, i somehow forget to tag the angst, or so she thinks, she had a gun shoved in her face and was abandoned in a mine, some em/jess if thats the way your roll, tried to keep it ambiguous enough that it could be read as a ship or as friends, who can blame her?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24509047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflySong/pseuds/FireflySong
Summary: Emily has just left the lodge in flames behind her and is sitting in a police stations nursing a terrible cup of coffee. Unfortunately for her, the mug has a rainbow on the side of it, and it is not helping to repress the memories of her "friends" and the things that they did that night.Written for Day 1: Rainbow of the Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge over on tumblr.
Series: Pride Month Writing Prompt Challenge 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1770988
Comments: 12
Kudos: 11





	(Un)Forgiveness is the Key to Salvation

**Author's Note:**

> you: pride month is all about love and acceptance  
> me: fuck you sole survivor em  
> #noregrets
> 
> you can find me on tumblr at love-fireflysong if you feel so inclined!

Personally, Emily had never been a huge fan of rainbows. It wasn’t that she hated them per say, she had just always been indifferent to them. There were far more exciting things out there than looking at a spectrum of light that didn’t actually exist because it was just light that reflected off of water droplets that _sometimes_ appeared in the sky after rain.

None of which was helping her as she glared at the mug of coffee that one of the officers at the police station had given her. The chintzy rainbow adorning the one side was way too cheerful and uplifting for the shit she had endured and somehow survived. Jess had once told her that rainbows were supposed to be a symbol of hope or promise or of good things to come. If so, then they were pretty shitty symbols in her opinion. Nothing that had just happened had been any of those things.

(Unlike her, Jess loved rainbows. Her grey eyes would always brighten up when one appeared in the sky after a rain shower, or she would squeal in childlike joy when she watched the colors dance across her hand when cast through a window.

She didn't want to think about Jess.)

She took a drink and grimaced at both the taste and texture. The coffee was more like black sludge, thick and bitter. Em had a feeling that no amount of sugar or cream would be able to save this tar in a cup. She stopped trying to drink it. The color and consistency reminded her too much of the oil that had been everywhere in the mines, that stained her hand and clothes.

(Matt should have been in the mines with her, but he had failed to save her and fell with her when the tower finally collapsed further into the mines. And when she had woken up, leg tangled in rope and miraculously alive, he was nowhere to been seen.

She didn’t care about Matt anymore.)

She had found Beth’s head in the mines. Had found Hannah’s journal in the mines. Had been chased by that, that _thing_ in the mines. She had barely escaped the mines with her life.

(Sam and Mike had gone down into the mines to find Josh. They never came back with him.

That was fine, this was all his fault anyway. She hoped he froze to death and rotted down there.)

In an effort to stop staring at the glazed image on the mug and the viscous substance within, and to stop from throwing it at the wall with a soul shattering scream, Em looked towards the officer that was standing nearby to keep an eye on her. She wasn’t too sure why, leaving the safety of the building to go outside was the absolute last thing she wanted to do with her time. But to her horror, her eyes caught on the carefully holstered pistol around their waist. The same way her eyes kept catching on it throughout her interview.

Unbidden, Mike flashed across her mind, the barrel of the gun flashing in low light of the monitors and aimed at her face.

(Mike was dead now. The sickening crack of his spine shattering as he was thrown against the pillar ensured that there was no way he would ever walk out even if the lodge hadn’t burst into flames.

She didn't feel anything when she used the commotion as a distraction to run outside.)

There had been so much screaming. Worse had been Ashley and Chris egging Mike on, adamant that Emily was going to turn into one of those things and kill them. Her hand that encircled the mug still stung from when it connected with Ash’s face, but it was a better sting then the bite on her shoulder.

(They were dead now, too. She had been running behind them, away from the wendigos chasing them down the hall, but they had been too slow. So, she had shoved Ash out of the way and into the wall. But because Chris had been holding Ashley’s hand, she hadn’t been able to brace herself and fell, taking him with her.

She wondered if they had died still holding hands. She hoped not.)

Sam had been the only one to stick up for her. Trying to convince Mike to lower the gun and for Ash and Chris to calm down. Em still thinks she should have tried harder, should have ripped the gun from Mike’s hands. Should have aimed it at _their_ faces instead. See how they liked it.

(Sam was also dead, though she didn’t see it happen. A few seconds after she had made it outside, the lodge had quite literally exploded with Sam still in it. She didn’t know if Sam had stayed behind in repentance for closing the cinema room door and locking it despite Chris and Ash still being in the hall. Didn’t know if it was Hannah or the flames that killed her in the end.

She decided that she didn’t care either way.)

The sound of the only door to the room opening was enough to rip her eyes away from the gun, and very nearly dropped the rainbow mug in her shock. Jess stood in the doorway, huddling deep into a very old and worn leather jacket that Em had never seen before, and she looked like shit. Jess’s always immaculately styled hair was coming out of her braid, her make-up was running down her face, long and deep gashes covered what little of her chest Em could see beneath the jacket, and every bit of her available skin was covered in blood and dirt and gore and who knows what else.

Before she could even move though, Jess saw her and ran towards her, flinging her arms around Em’s neck with a sob and they both broke down. The two of them sat in the same chair, rocking each other back and forth, as they both cried and apologized and swore that they would never let a stupid guy or anyone or anything get between them again. Slowly, the two of them calmed down; emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted and all cried out. With nothing else to do, Em offered her the mug of coffee still in her hands and watched as Jess’ baby blue eyes lit up just the smallest amount at the rainbow on the side.

(Maybe Jess had been right. Rainbows were a symbol of hope.

Not that she would ever admit it.)


End file.
